ellives

I agree. To lump the Terraza, Lacrosse and Lucerne together in a single generalized indictment is either pure carelessness or ignorance. Neither of which I'd want to see on a resume and both traits are what really drives people at this point to buy Toyota. Not good. Personally I'd dump Tiger too. I always thought the concept of him driving a Buick was odd. He's a kid driving what is presumably a mature adult's vehicle. (I didn't say 'old' as I was referring to the demographic of 30+ somethings who would also consider buying Lexus.) Can't you just envision him as a kid who got his hands on mom or dad's Buick Rendezvous and calling all is friends to go for a joy ride?

Flybrian had it right immediately: C&D had a slow day. It really makes no sense to talk about the EXT in this article in the way it was done when GM sells the vehicle reasonably well and makes big money from it. What part of "make profits" doesn't C&D get? Apparently they get it when THEY need to make a profit by selling a copy of a magazine with no useful information in it "just to say they have a product in the segment." Seems humorously similar to what they accuse GM of doing. Duh.

Olds was a victim of the inept GM marketing machine. The Aurora is proof of this. Great car. No one knew what the brand was. This situation was simply criminal given GM's brand identity problems that linger on even today.

It's described pretty well here: http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/rules/cafe/overview.htm Specficially the section entitled "How is a manufacturer’s CAFE determined for a given model year?" I'd paste in the text but there are figures important to the explanation that wouldn't paste well.

Not! The overnight charge approach would actually be a more efficient use of our electrical grid than is currently the case. At night the system is essentially idling - spinning turbines but actually supplying very little electricity. My house is essentially using zero power after everyone is in bed, other than the refrigerators. With hybrids charging at least the turbines would have some work to do.

It's all just herd mentality. My son and I were just talking about this perception problem today. He was commenting that one of his friends doesn't know WHAT brands are GM brands and didn't know Lexus is part of Toyota. This is the same friend that told him how great Toyotas are. Why would he say this? Ignorance is bliss I guess. (He's also the same friend that bitches about his parents Honda with a failed transmission.) I REALLY have an urge to print a banner for the back of my car that says something like " Nah - GM can't build quality cars... This 1997 Cadillac you're following has 130,000 miles on it. Wanna race?" Anybody have any other good ideas for a trunk banner I can use?

Toyota does it all the time....

The question of why the Aveo is "sub-par" is complicated. The bottom line is GM wanted something in the segment. Given their pension and healthcare burden they couldn't afford to develop their own so they bought something. It may not be class leading but it's in the segment. They opted to put their money into developing new GMT-900's.

It's simpler to tell the government to get lost.

Not really. Get the idiots in congress out of the business issues. They have no business telling the car industry what they should be building. Miraculously these things work themselves out without government lackies sticking their useless noses into it. When the supply of gas gets tight, the price goes up and people buy smaller and more efficient vehicles. There is no need for CAFE standards or anything like it.

Actually I have no problem with GM abandoning a segment they're not competitive in. Even for a short time. It wastes resources they could be expending in other areas. If you're not competitive in a segment, you're not making money at it and GM needs to figure out how to make money - a LOT of it.

"Scapegoat" is just whiner talk. Nobody's asking for a scapegoat. They're asking for a level playing field. Besides, anyone who doesn't think government has a role in business is ignorant, a fool or both.

Umm - Bingo! You got Bingo! (They *weren't* thinking.) Building *any* Cadillac without Nav now is just damn st00pid.

I'd cut her some slack for a while. I like her tenaciousness. She's already made some stumbles but hopefully she'll find her footing. My most hopeful scenario is for the congress to remain split, and nothing gets accomplished in the next session and another slaughter happens in the '08 election. There *is* hope with Frist out. Good riddance. This past congress did nothing for anybody and they got their just reward.... political death.

Ditto. The ONLY hope is that the new members of congress maintain some backbone. They have some serious numbers. I would love to seem them pass congresional term limits. This country has no need for the likes of Ted Kennedy or Robert Byrd. We test people for a driver's license once they make it to a certain age but we let the someone who is a virtual vegetable like Strom Thurmond stay in congress. The question is whether the voters will pay attention long enough to have something like term limits pass. I doubt it.

Olds is dead and gone sad to say. Strange I commented out loud to someone this morning when I heard a story on NBC about crash results announced this week. They had asked a number of manufacturers about their plans to address their deficiencies. A number of them said they were doing this or that. The GM spokesman said "we meet all US federal requirements." So typical GM: "we just good enough." Sad. That spokesman should be fired immediately.

I seem to remember reading their full sized trucks were piling up in lots around Detroit.

"don't have the engineering chops....?" It's time for YOU to get real. Any company that can build a Z06 for the price they sell for can build anything. Obviously you didn't understand the point of the article. The mini-van is a declining market so why chase a declining market when there are growth segments to pursue?

I think he made a reasonable case. There are only so many dollars to develop products. He is basically saying there are top quality products on the market today in the Siennas and Odysseys so putting new money into an already covered segment doesn't make sense when there are new segments where there is market opportunity so why not invest in those and have a better opportunity to make the money back.

True but you have to start somewhere. There *is* no silver bullet and clearly Toyota has huge momentum. It's depressing.

We all agree the legacy pension costs are yet another hurdle. As I've said before, I don't see much short of bankrupcy as a solution for this problem. I heard a story on NPR this morning about Delta Airlines handing over a good chunk of their pension obligations to the federal (U.S.) government which will be part of Delta's plan to emerge from bankrupcy. Of course GM is not an airline and the challenges of a bankrupt company trying to sell cars are daunting. Nevertheless the union issue is a big one. If you assume the wage issues of 32 vs. 27 as you describe below, the number does not include benefits. This is where the real disparity likely appears. To me the bigger issue is the fact the UAW has a big stick called a strike which they will use against GM and Ford whenever they don't get what they want and the Toyotas and Hondas, et al don't have the same worry hanging over their head at every business turn. The playing field needs to be leveled and it will happen in only a handful of potential ways: Unionizing the foreign manufacturers; busting the UAW; or bankrupcy. None of these are attractive so pick your poison.

Absolutely! Definitely check out the '07 SRX. It really shows where Cadillac interiors are heading. Very nice. We went from (a the International Auto Show in Boston last month) sitting in the Escalade EXT to the SRX at the recommendation of the Cadillac rep at the show and I was very impressed with the interior. Go GM!

It makes the foreign automakers provide the same benefits as GM, Ford and Chrysler are required to provide. This levels the playing field a bit. It doesn't address the legacy disadvantage the domestics have but it addresses present day. Right now the foreign manufacturers have a huge cost advantage and it's eating the domestics alive. This is the main reason so few are unionized. It's going to be an ugly 2007.

To me the Malibu is simple. It's an ugly, uninspiring automobile. I rode in a Maxx a while back and found it to be a solid, comfortable car. The styling is fatal however. Nissan is a good example where styling brought them back from the brink. Lesson learned.

Interestingly there are three suppliers near me, Exxon, Mobil (these two are within 200 feet of each other - they should have been made to divest one of them) and Irving. I have been buying Irving exclusively since the MobilExxon-sodomy began and I've been happy. I'm always disappointed more people don't make the effort to avoid ExxonMobil - They miss the fact that it's no the penny or 2 per gallon that these companies care about - it's the overall revenue. Switching from one company to another is a big swing in revenue.